SOLAR SYSTEM
Learn About The Solar System!
Images are took from wiki and eso
What Is The Solar System?
The Solar System is our cosmic
neighborhood, centered around
the Sun and comprising the eight
planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth,
Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus,
Neptune) and everything else
gravitationally bound to it,
including dwarf planets (like Pluto),
moons, asteroids, comets, and
dust, all orbiting in elliptical paths.
Sun
The Sun is the star at the center of our
solar system, a massive, glowing ball
of hot gas (mostly hydrogen and
helium) that provides the light and heat
essential for life on Earth, with its
immense gravity holding the planets
and other bodies in orbit. It's a yellow
dwarf star, powered by nuclear fusion
in its core, making it the dominant,
largest, and most massive object in our
solar system, containing over 99.8% of
its total mass.
Mercury
Mercury is the smallest planet in
our solar system, closest to the
Sun, and the fastest, completing
an orbit in just 88 Earth days. It's a
rocky, cratered world with extreme
temperature swings, a massive
iron core, and surprisingly, water
ice in permanently shadowed polar
craters, despite its proximity to the
Sun
Venus
Venus is the second planet from
the Sun, Earth's "sister planet"
due to similar size, but is hellishly
hot, shrouded in thick, toxic
carbon dioxide clouds that create
an extreme greenhouse effect,
making it the hottest in our solar
system.
Earth
Earth – our home planet – is
the third planet from the Sun,
and the fifth largest planet. It's
the only place we know of
inhabited by living things.
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from
the Sun. It is also known as
the "Red Planet", for its
orange-red appearance. Mars
is a desert-like rocky planet
with a tenuous atmosphere
that is primarily carbon
dioxide.
Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the
Sun and the largest in the Solar
System. It is a gas giant with a
mass nearly 2.5 times that of all
the other planets in the Solar
System combined and slightly
less than one-thousandth the
mass of the Sun. Its diameter is
11 times that of Earth and a tenth
that of the Sun.
Saturn
Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun, a
massive gas giant known for its
spectacular, icy rings, making it the
second-largest planet in our solar system
after Jupiter. Composed mainly of hydrogen
and helium, it's so light it would float in
water, yet it boasts over 80 moons,
including Titan, and features powerful winds
and unique storms like the hexagonal jet
stream at its north pole, all visible with
telescopes from Earth.
Uranus
Uranus is the seventh planet from the
Sun, a blue-green ice giant known for
its extreme axial tilt, causing it to
essentially spin on its side, leading to
unique seasons and odd magnetic
fields. It's the third-largest planet,
composed mainly of icy materials
(water, ammonia, methane) over a
rocky core, giving it a cool, windy
atmosphere with faint rings and over
two dozen moons.
Neptune
Neptune is the eighth and farthest planet
from the Sun, an ice giant known for its
deep blue color, supersonic winds, and
Great Dark Spot storms; it's similar to
Uranus but more massive, with a
composition of icy materials like water,
ammonia, and methane, and faint rings,
discovered mathematically before being
visited by Voyager 2.
How was the solar system formed?
The solar system formed about 4.6 billion years ago from a giant,
rotating cloud of gas and dust called the solar nebula, which
collapsed under its own gravity, flattening into a spinning disk with
the Sun forming at the center. Material in the disk clumped
together, forming planets, moons, asteroids, and comets, with the
young Sun's powerful solar wind eventually clearing out the
leftover gas and dust.
Facts about the solar system
Our solar system features the Sun, eight planets, dwarf planets,
moons, asteroids, and comets, with the Sun containing 99.86% of
its mass; Jupiter is the largest planet, Venus is the hottest, Uranus
spins sideways, and Earth is the only known place with life,
though probes are exploring the potential for water and past life on
other worlds like Mars.
Interesting things about the solar system
Our solar system is full of extremes, from Jupiter's massive storms
and Saturn's icy rings, to Venus being hotter than Mercury despite
being farther from the Sun, and Uranus spinning on its side. It's a
place with watery moons like Ganymede, the solar system's tallest
volcano on Mars, and even Mars sunsets that are blue, all orbiting
a sun that holds 99.86% of the system's mass and takes 230
million years to circle the Milky Way.
Fun Fact
Did you know that years ago, you could see the milky way shining with a naked eye? It's
very visible from Earth! You could see thousands of stars years ago and now it's rare to
even see one. Why not anymore? Light pollution. There are lights everywhere blocking
the view. You can still see it when light pollution isn't in the area.
Before Before After
This is how different it is.
You've learned about the solar
system!
